Punch line: The shocked (or intrigued) agent asks what the act is called, and the proud answer (sometimes delivered with a flourish) is: "The Aristocrats!"; Some versions have the agent then asking, "So – Is that all ya' got?"

In 2005, Jackie Martling's website cited "The Aristocrats" as appearing on page 987 of Gershon Legman's Rationale of the Dirty Joke, Second Series, published in 1975.[1] Legman retells the joke, complete with its traditional vaudevillian flourishes, although he does not attribute the joke to vaudeville roots. Instead, Legman learned the joke from a young man who grew up in a broken home.[1]

In a 2005 interview, comedian Barry Cryer said he had heard the joke "fifty years ago".[2]

In 2010, comedian singer/songwriter Mark Silverman did a musical telling of the joke on his third album titled Perverse Milkman Art. Track number five is simply titled "The Aristocrats", and the song lyrics follow the traditional set up and punchline, but go so far as to include Satan being summoned from Hell to wage a new world war and to "rule the earth for a millennium."